"Take it for what it is."

I popped Serious Sam into my machine a few weeks ago having never heard of the game previously, played it for a while and can seriously say that when I finished, I felt like I had been beaten up.

Graphics: 8/10 - The colours and animation are pretty good. A lot of things in this game jump out at you and considering the amount of aliens and bad guys that can be around at once, it is a no mean feat that things remain recognisable. There do seem to be a few problems with rendering at certain times but that may be early release problems and it hasn't blighted my gameplay. Certainly Sam is one of the first games that I have stood back from and thought ''hmmm, I have an arcade game in my home...''

Sound: 9/10 - I wouldn't say that Sam offers you any breakthroughs in sound. We have all heard explosions and the sound of lasers and rockets done (probably better) elsewhere. But the Croatian developers knew what they had to do with the sound and that was to make it LOUD. From rocket launchers to the mechanical assault-type bad-guys to the screaming bomb men, the sounds are IN YOUR FACE FLANDERS! Nuff said, I got more chicken bone !

Controls: 8/10 - The XBox controls pretty much do this game justice. Once you are skilled in (the XBox way of)controlling with two joysticks, maneuvering is not a problem Changing between weapons can be a bit of a nightmare in heavy battle situations although there is a nice feature of assigning two of your fave weapons to two of the controller's four buttons (and there is a good choice of weapons to be had, oh yes).

Playability: 8/10 - In the single adventure you have a good paced game that allows you to plow through at a rate of knots if you so wish, or hold back and figure some of the secrets out that are scattered among the levels, and there are quite a few levels. The game throws a number of scenarios at you which can challenge your pure fighting spirit or your tactical ability to choose the right weapon for the job. In multi-player you have an immensely furious shoot 'em up which to me held limited appeal, particularly after playing a more refined game such as Halo. However don't despair, for if you are under duress to buy this with your kid brother , the two of you are guaranteed to enjoy the co-operative mission and share the enjoyment of having the shinola kicked out of you together.. awww bless..!

Overall: 8/10 - Serious Sam does everything but take itself seriously. Between missions are little gems of comedy and although the fighting can get a bit frantic at times you never truly feel as though you are turning into a psycho. Sort of smacks of 'Robocop'...you'll know what I mean when you play it. A good honest FPS for your collection, or a damn good renter for a couple of nights.